Managing a company using the Lean approach requires everybody at every level of the organization to think about time all the time. Lean enthusiasts think about ‘lead-time, ‘wait-time, ‘through-put...
Posts By:
Gary Conner
How to Calculate the Financial Impact of Continuous Improvement Projects
From my early days working in a precision sheet metal shop and through my career as a lean consultant, I frequently have found it challenging to convince finance teams to allocate funds for...
The Primary Forms of Waste (And How To Eliminate Them)
Nearly fifty years ago, Shigeo Shingo (Toyota Motor Works Engineer) identified what he called the ‘primary forms of waste’. These forms of waste are nearly universally discoverable in every...
Avoiding Lean Fatigue
"Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it." - Winston Churchill There are repeating patterns throughout history, in Nature, in Economics, in International Relations, and yes, in business....
A Practical Guide to PQR Analysis
What Is PQR? PQR stands for Product, Quantity and Routing. PQR analysis is a way of answering the questions: What do you make? How many do you make? What processes are required to make it? In...
Manufacturing Learning Experience for Students
McMinnville Economic Development Partnership and McMinnville Works co-sponsored a half day learning experience for local college students (Interns) on Wednesday July 27th at the Evergreen Aerospace...
PQR Analysis
Identifying a common measurement A major concern for most job shops has been to identify a common unit of measure that everyone can understand and that allows the application of “Takt Time” (a...
Different people, different perspectives on lean
Originally published in THE FABRICATOR® MAY 2015 By: Charlie Hopewell, Dave Davidson, Gary Conner Employees and managers experience a lean transformation in vastly different ways. Understanding...